Abbotsford gangs use youth in ‘debt collection and the movement of guns and drugs,’ federal paper says

OTTAWA — The federal government will announce Friday a $6.3-million, five-year program to cut youth participation in criminal gangs in Abbotsford, The Vancouver Sun has learned.

The funding, to be announced in B.C. by Ed Fast, who is federal trade minister and Abbotsford’s MP, comes from the federal government’s Youth Gang Prevention Fund program. It was launched as a $33.6 million, five-year program in 2006-07. It was renewed on the eve of the 2011 election campaign by Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a visit to Surrey, where he lauded one of the program’s pilot projects there.

“Numerous active youth gangs have been identified by the Abbotsford police department, along with other established gangs in the region, like the Hells Angels,” according to one federal government document prepared in advance of Friday’s announcement. “Youth are used in debt collection and the movement of guns and drugs.”

The project will focus on Abbotsford youth ages 12-24 “who are currently in a gang or at-risk of gang involvement.”

Among the program’s “direct interventions” will be programs focused on “anger management, social development skills, conflict mediation skills to increase employability, parenting skills and to increase awareness of the risks of gang involvement and a criminal lifestyle.”

The program, which has based many of its programs on ones that proved effective in the U.S., received a moderately favourable review in an internal government assessment done in 2010-11.

Among the projects across the country funded during the first five years were anti-gang programs in Vancouver and Surrey.

The Surrey program involved a partnership between Ottawa, the City of Surrey, the Surrey Gang Task Force, Surrey RCMP, the YMCA and Surrey Youth Justice Services.

The 2010-11 evaluation of the overall program done by Public Safety Canada found mixed early results for the program:

• The program wasn’t run “in an efficient matter” in the first two years, though efficiency later improved.

• While roughly three-quarters of participants left their gangs, the analysts said it is difficult to analyze anti-gang programs. in part because youth are reluctant to take part in surveys.

• Despite several years of operation it wasn’t known, when the analysis work was done in 2010, whether provincial and municipal authorities were gaining a broader understanding of the youth gang phenomenon.

• Despite community support for gang prevention programs, “many projects may not continue in full without ongoing federal support.”

Jasbir Sandhu, the New Democratic Party MP for Surrey North, picked up on that theme in a critique of the program last year.

“This means that effective and quality prevention programs already in operation can be left without funding after the pilot period, leaving the community back at square 1,” Sandhu said in a news release.

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